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BIG SEASON FOR THE STEEPLECHASERS W. K. Coes Bet and J. E. Griffiths The Brook Stars of the Timoer-Toppers. XEW YORK. X. Y.. February 18. W. R. Coe, now one of Xew Yorks leading sportsmen, also one of the countrys greatest prospective breeders of thoroughbreds, will havej his star jumper Ret trained again- this coming season, and in the winner of last falls 10,000 Manly Memorial Steeplechase Mr. Coe is expected" to have one of the leading steeplechasers of the year. A daughter of King James and Xnney 1. Ret seems to improve with age. For several years her refusal to jump cleanly unless some other horse gave her a fast lead made her an unreliable racing proposition, but she seems to have overcome that weakness and to lie improving with age. Ijist summer she struck her proper gait, and after beating Weldship and Shannon River in the Xorth American Steeplechase, and Shannon River and Dramaturge iii the Red Cross Subscription Handicap and being beaten by St. Charlcote in the Saratoga, a steeplechase in which she took the measure of The Rrook. she journeyed down to Pimlico and trimmed the stars of the year in the Manly Memorial. The Rrook was the Manly Memorial contender, and Ret had him beaten through the last half mile. Ret is now wintering at Relmont Park. If her reformation is really complete It is a question whether there will be a juniper out this year capable of taking her measure when she is not tor severely handicapped. She is likely to prove one of the biggest money winners of the Coe stable, albeit William Karrick is training for Mr. Coe highly promising three-year-olds in Terentia and Sweep On. and he has some promising two-year-olds coming on. Rets chances of proving a big money winner are good because there will be more and better steeple-, chase purses in the east this year and not as many horses of. the liest quality as are normally seen under colors to fill them. NOT EASILY DEVELOPED. Many of the leading supporters of the cross-country sport abandoned steeplechasipg a couple of years back to take up war work, and although most of them will lie back, on the Job in the spring they will be back" empty-handed. Steeplechase horses are. not ;i- easily .developed as , are Jlat . .horses.; TfiYfi fs iL-Uieory among horsemen that it takes three years to .make a steeplechaser, and, although good jumpers have been developed in less time than that when precocious timber has lieen available, that idea is nearly the correct one. J. E. Griffiths foreign-bred horse The Rrook. Mr?. Walter M. Jeffords Rabcock, Joseph E. Wide-ners Duettiste, George 1. Wideners Truinpator, W. A. Primes W. F. Knebelkamp, . K. L. Ross Dramaturge, J. A. Ruchanaus Goldilocks and F. S. Von Stades TRiditioner seem to he the most formidable of Rets prospective rivals among the veteran jumiiers. Mrs. Payne Whitney lost her ace when Square Dealer broke down at Pimllco just lie-fore the running of the Manly Memorial, for which he was pointing. Weldship showed clearly that age and hard campaigning were telling on his vital energies. St. Charlcote was nothing like the horse last year he had been the year before, and, having a bad leg, there does not seem to be great prospect of his improving this coining season. St. Charlcote Im a horse of great bulk, and bulk and a bad leg are not a good combination. Rabcock probably is the best prospect of the younger of the veterans. A son of Waterboy and Phantasma, Rabcock disclosed much natural aptitude for steeplechasing at Saratoga and Relmont Park in August and September. When he struck himself and went lame at Laurel, Mike Daly put him by. Daly did not persist in training the big Waterboy gelding for the Manly Memorial, as he must have been strongly tempted to do. It is hard to pass a .0,000 Rice when one has a horse of I.ahcoeks promise to work on, even if that horse does happen, to be a little lame. Duettiste and Dramaturge, two other developments of last year, also look like comers.. Roth are sons of Ethelbe.rt, the. formVr.s dam being Rulcibella. the latter from Drama. Duettiste and Dramaturge did remarkably well, esin-cially as the season waned. Duettiste ran a good race in Uie Manly Memorial. Dramaturge showed, nearly high-class steeplechase form on three or four occasions, and he did not have the gcod fortune to carry a first-class rider at any time in the year. THE BROOK BEST OF VETERANS. The Rrook. of course, is the best of the seasoned veterans. The real cross-country hero of the season, as he was the biggest of the jumping money winners his earnings totaled 7.-110. The Rrook does not have to improve a great deal. He is a faultless fencer and a skillful manager of weight, notwithstanding he is not a big horse. His path will be thornier this year than It was last. Rut he is sound and strong and only six years old. which is no great age for a jumper, and the chance of his rising to whatever is asked of him is good. Mrs. Payne Whitney. Timothy Donohue, E. M. Weld and the Xnssau Stable seem to have the best four-year-old prospects in Elysian, Delxulou, Relle of the Sea and Decisive, the three-year-olds of 1918 which figured most conspicuously in the steeplechasing at Pimlico in November. Debadou. a brother of Rromo and Leoehares, won the ,000 Elkridge, the seasons stiffest test of three-year-old fencing merit, and he showed well. Xevertheless, the cross-country sharp left Pimlico in Xovember pretty well convinced that Elysian was the best three-year-old of 1918. How Henderson managed to get off Elysians back in the running of the Elkridge lias never been explained. Elysian is a horse of size and substance, a perfect jumping type, and he knows his way through the field. He is a steadier horse than Debadou. Relle of the Sea won the notice of the sharps in the Junior, another race for three-year-olds exclusively, when she defeated Decisive and Elysian. Elysians defeat prolwbly was due to the circumstance that he had not been out since the running of the Elkridge, in which he had injured himself slightly.
